Helsinki Literary Agency Foreign Rights List Spring 2020 Contents Novels by prize-winning authors 5 Kari HotaKainen Story 7 Selja aHava The Woman Who Loved Insects 9 Marisha raSi-Koskinen REC 11 Mikko riMMinen If It Looks Like It 13 riikka Pelo All that Is Alive 15 Piia leino Overtime 17 Pirkko SaiSio Prevarications New acclaimed voices 19 anu Kaaja Katie-Kate 21 juHani Karila Fishing for the Little Pike 23 antti rönKä Off the Ground 25 niina Miettinen Wild Rosemary 27 Sisko SavonlaHti Maybe This Summer Everything Will Change 29 ellen StröMberg The Itch 31 annaStiina StorM Mirror, Mirror 33 Katriina Huttunen The Placenta of Grief 35 Harry SalMennieMi Victim Syndrome 37 j. P. laitinen Fictional 39 niillaS HolMberg Underfoot Crime 41 tuoMaS vimma The Left Bank 43 eva Frantz Out of the Game 45 j. P. PulKKinen White Crow 47 j. M. ilveS Bordertown – The Man-Beast Nonfiction 49 vappu Kaarenoja & aurora räMö The Women Who Run Finland 51 lea & Santeri PaKKanen It Happened to Us 53 MarcuS roSenlund Towards the Stars 55 Hannele jyrKKä The Hunter 57 teeMu KeskiSarja The Angel of Death 59 MiKKo PyHälä Venezuela from Riches to Rags 61 Harri KirveSnieMi & axa Sorjanen & Kimmo Syväri The Good Ski School 63 MarKo leppänen & adela Pajunen Woodland Authors See pages 65–71 Literary fiction © Laura Malmivaara Kari Hotakainen (b. 1957) brought his distinctive, personal voice to the Finnish literary scene in 1982. Since then he has published over 20 works comprising novels, poems, and books for children and young people. He has received the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, the Finlandia Prize, the Prix du Courrier International and the Prix Coup du Coeur, amongst others. His novels have been translated into more than 20 languages. He’s first nonfiction book, The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen (2018) is the best-selling Finnish nonfiction work of all times with over 200,000 sold copies in Finland and over 100,000 abroad. It has been sold to 13 languages so far. [ 4 ] Kari Hotakainen Story What does a worthy life look like? What is a good life story? This is the situation: the countryside has been turned into a Recreation Area, everyone lives in the City. Occu pations and job descriptions have changed or dis - appeared altogether, no one can find their place, things have got out of control, the Decision Makers are in trouble. As there is not enough housing for everyone, a brutal playoff begins. The best story-tellers get apartments, while everyone else ends up in temporary accommoda- tion built in the Barracks or the empty Shopping Malls. Who can tell the most attractive story and make their lives seem interesting, who is exhausted by the impos- sible task? Will the President’s nerves snap, will Moomin- troll succeed in promoting a raccoon dog as a commer- cial product? Why has Rahikainen changed his name to Rahic, what is the ghost of a pig doing in a chandelier hanging from the ceiling of an old slaughterhouse, what is the ending of the love story of an elderly couple who Tarina like kissing? Siltala Publishing, September 2020, c. 250 pp. Kari Hotakainen’s new novel describes what is happen- reading Material ing in the world now – and what may happen there Finnish original (available in June 2020), next. Story is outrageous, wildly funny and slyly moving. English sample, English synopsis Hotakainen has never written like this before. rigHtS inForMation Helsinki Literary Agency alSo available [email protected] The Trench Road (Juoksuhaudantie, 2002) Rights sold: Czech Republic, Dybbuk; Denmark, Gyldendal; Dutch, Rode Kamer; Estonia, Tänapäev; France, J. C. Lattès; Georgia, Siesta; Germany, Piper; Hungary, Kalevala; Iceland, Mál og menning; Italy, Iperborea; Japan, Shinhyoron; Latvia, Dienas Gramata; Lithuania, Vaga; Mari, V. Analov; Norway, Cappelen Damm; South Korea, Chaek i choun saram; Russia, Azbooka; Spain, Meettok; Sweden, MånPocket See more p. 66. [ 5 ] Literary fiction © Liisa Valonen Selja Ahava (b. 1974) is a dramaturge and a scriptwriter. Her lauded debut novel The Day the Whale Swam through London (2010) was a nominee for the Helsingin Sanomat Literary Prize, and it won the Laura Hirvisaari Prize (The Bookseller’s Literary Prize) in 2010. Her second novel, Things that Fall from the Sky (2015) was awarded with the European Union Prize for Literature in 2016, and it was nomi- nated for the Finlandia Prize and the Torch-bearer Prize. In 2017 she published Before My Husband Disappears and in 2020 The Woman Who Loved Insects. [ 6 ] Selja Ahava The Woman Who Loved Insects A beautiful and passionate story carries the reader from the days of the witch trials to present-day Berlin. Maria, born in the age of witch trials, has been fascinated by insects since childhood. She begins to draw the meta- morphic life cycles of them, as did her historical model, the German naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717). With the passage of time from one age to another the world changes, and religion finds a competitor in science. The novel shows a woman breaking out of her narrow role, gaining a voice and authorship, together with the right to ponder the mystery of the origin of life. Just as insects undergo a transformation, so over time Maria changes, going on to live for 370 years. The Woman Who Loved Insects has much to say about the relation between humans and nature. Above all, how- ever, it is the story of a woman following her own path and her own passions, despite the obstacles set in her way by the era. Nainen joka rakasti hyönteisiä Gummerus, June 2020, c. 280 pp. alSo available The Day the Whale Swam through London (Eksyneen muistikirja, 2010) reading Material Rights sold: Germany, Mare; Korea, Munhakdongne Finnish original, English sample, Things that Fall from the Sky (Taivaalta tippuvat asiat, 2015) English synopsis Rights sold: Albania, IDK; Arabic, Egyptian Cultural Assembly; Armenia, Guitank; Bulgaria, Colibri; China, Citic; Croatia, Vukovic´ & Runjic´; Czech Republic, Pavel Dobrovský – Beta; Denmark, Jensen & Dalgaard; World English, Oneworld; Estonia, Post Factum (Eesti Meedia); France, Bleu & Jaune; Georgia, Agora; Germany, Mare Verlag; Hungary, Typo tex; Latvia, Lauku Avize; Lithuania, Homo liber; Macedonia, Magor; Poland, Relacja; Serbia, Štrik; Slovenia, KUD Sodobnost International; World Spanish, Editorial Bercimuel; Swedish, Bakhall; Turkey, Timas; Ukraine, V. Books xxi Before My Husband Disappears (Ennen kuin mieheni katoaa, 2017) Rights sold: Bulgaria, Colibri; Denmark, Jensen & Dalgaard; Slovenia, KUD Sodobnost International Option publisher: World English, Oneworld [ 7 ] Literary fiction © Miikka Pirinen Marisha Rasi-Koskinen (b. 1975) has published six works of fiction. They include novels Katariina (2011), Lies (2013), awarded with Tiiliskivi Prize, The Map of Going Astray (2017) The Dark Side of the Sun (2019), and REC (2020). Her collection of short stories, A Pink Sea (2014), was shortlisted for the Runeberg Prize. The Dark Side of the Sun was her first work for young adults and it won the Finlandia Junior Prize in 2019. REC marks the high point of her love of fiction and the culmination of her career so far. [ 8 ] Marisha Rasi-Koskinen REC A big novel about friendship and love, power and boundlessness. Lucas A is just an ordinary boy with an ordinary life until he becomes special. It happens when everything begins for the first time, and everything begins when he meets Cole. Many beginnings and endings later, Lucas travels for the first time to the city where his story began. Someone is dead, someone has vanished, and Lucas travels to find answers, of course, but it doesn’t work like that. He finds new questions, his story connects with other stories. “If Lucas yearns for anything it’s shared laughter, how their voices resonate in laughter, how their minds do. And shared illusion. He yearns and fears. Loves and abhors. Illusion that has no beginning and no real end, and seeps into reality, permeates it as if it were organic matter. When Cole and Lucas were together, reality was flexible.” REC REC is a travel book and a documentary, a fiction about S&S, September 2020, c. 480 pp. fiction. It’s a breath-taking kaleidoscope where stories and reality constantly take on new angles in new hands. reading Material Once again Finlandia Prize winner Marisha Rasi- Koski- Finnish original (available in June 2020), nen writes herself to the forefront of the Finnish novel. English sample, English synopsis PleaSe contact alSo available Helsinki Literary Agency Katariina (Katariina, 2011) [email protected] Lies (Valheet, 2013) A Pink Sea (Vaaleanpunainen meri, 2014) The Map of Going Astray (Eksymisen ja unohtamisen kirja, 2017) Rights sold: Galego, Meettok; Spanish, Meettok [ 9 ] Literary fiction © Stefan Bremer Mikko Rimminen (b. 1975) is a lauded writer who started his literary career as a poet. He has written six novels: Park Life (2004), The Block (2007), Finlandia Prize-winning Red Nose Day (2010), Tag (2013), The Most Natural Thing in the World (2017) and If It Looks Like It (2019). Rimminen’s books have been translated into over ten languages and they have sold only in Finland so far over 60,000 copies. [ 10 ] Mikko Rimminen If It Looks Like It A thoroughly sad depiction of a sad human being whose loss, buried in his past, compels him to remain silent. Acquaintances call Mr Lyysälä simply Lyy though he doesn’t really know many people. The gentleman is getting old quietly and doesn’t expect much from life. He goes on drives, lives in a block of flats in Helsinki and keeps his neighbours at an arm’s length. Only one of them, a young boy, appears to have formed an attach ment to Lyy. When the neighbours get together to celebrate the solar eclipse, the party goes horribly wrong.